Tuesday 8 March 2016

International Women's Day

Today is the 8th of March - International Women's Day. Our day began with reading a man praising all women on a (Swedish) bicycle forum:

"Your beauty embellish each day and each night.... You're always there, by our side, in any weather, or when we come home from a bicycle ride.... " he wrote. And ended his post with a picture of a woman in shorts straddling a fixie.


Some, both women and men, thought that this was a pretty weird way of marking the International Women's Day and posted sarcastic replies. Then some men got offended, going "You feminists are all the same, always accusing men. Not all men are bad!" completely missing the point that this it is all about a patriarchal structure, and we are all affected by it. The man posting the first comment replied "No, it's not my wife on the picture, she's indeed just as beautiful, but the problem is finding a bicycle picture of her, unfortunately she doesn't share this interest with me, but she fully supports it, there's always a cold beer, some good food and sometimes a masage (sic!) waiting when I come home from my rides....!" Some people just don't seem to get it, do they?


He got more sarcastic replies, more men felt offended. (It's epidemic how people seem to feel offended nowadays.) So the man replied "She has cooking and baking as one of her biggest interests, I have the impression that she's quite pleased with what she has achieved, and will achieve in her life, and I try to support her in her interests and goals as much as I possibly can. Furthermore she has the fantastic quality of liking to please her husband, which I like doing for her too. We have the common opinion that the difference between man and woman is something that should be preserved and taken care of" and so on. And accused a women posting one of the sarcastic remarks of being bitter. Some people really don't seem to get it, do they?


Well, fortunately, that's not all that we found today. We found three great initiatives and inspirational people that we would like to tip you about:

World Bicycle Relief. It's not an organisation specifically for women, but it is just fantastic how something as simple as a bicycle can help women go to school, start a small business or provide healthcare. More people should support this.

Charity Msendo with her sturdy Buffalo Bicycle. (We borrowed this picture from World Bicycle Relief. Hope that's OK!)

Cycles Lady. Should you feel the need to be inspired when it comes to riding bikes, this is a great place to find it. Blogger/photographer Alena Chendler is extremely talented, and seem to know a lot of cool women who ride all kinds of bicycles.

(We borrowed this picture from Cycles Lady. Hope that's OK!)

And then, when you have gotten some inspiration, there's Bago Studio, run by Kellie Mobbs. Bago Studio makes clothes that are for cycling, traveling, hiking, dancing and everyday exploring, according to herself. Kellie Mobbs is extremely talented as well, and while the weather up here in the North really doesn't match her clothes very well at the moment, there will be a summer here too, eventually.

(We borrowed this picture from Bago Studio. Hope that's OK!)

Happy International Women's Day. Ride safe!

No comments:

Post a Comment